Los Angeles detectives say there have been several alleged sightings of missing Cal State Fullerton graduate Mitrice Richardson.

She reportedly has been spotted in Los Angeles to Orange counties and as far away as San Jose.

“People we’ve talked to are almost positive it’s her,” said LAPD robbery-homicide detective Steven Eguchi. “We are actively looking for her and following up on sightings.”

Eguchi and fellow detective Chuck Knolls have said they don’t believe she was a victim of foul play.

Family and friends of Mitrice Richardson, who went missing three weeks ago after she was released from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Malibu/Lost Hills substation, will hold a rally in front of the station Saturday.

The rally will be held at 10 a.m. in hopes that more will be done to find the 24-year-old woman, whose family believes, might be suffering mental problems.

Richardson hasn’t been heard from since she walked out of the sheriff’s substation on Sept. 17. She was about 40 miles from home her South L.A. home in a place she didn’t know. She had no car, no phone, no money and no jacket.

A possible sighting occurred a few hours after her release. A resident in the 500 block of Cold Canyon Road in Malibu called the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to report a woman in the back yard.

By the time deputies got there, Knolls said, the woman was gone.

Rescuers and search dogs did not find Richardson during a massive ground and air search conducted two weeks ago in Malibu Canyon.

Eguchi said a $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to Richardson’s whereabouts. The reward was approved on Sept. 29 by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Richardson was arrested the night of Sept. 16 after she dined at Geoffrey’s Malibu – an upscale, oceanfront restaurant. She ordered a steak and a drink, but when presented with the $89 bill, she said she had no money.

Richardson told restaurant employees that she was from Mars and started to talk to them in a made-up language.

Richardson was booked on suspicion of failing to pay for dinner and on suspicion of being in possession of less than one ounce of marijuana, which was found in her car. Her white 1990 Honda Civic was impounded.

Family and friends believe Richardson’s odd behavior might be the result of a mental condition that manifested itself the day she was arrested.

Richardson’s mother, Latrice Sutton, has said she believes her daughter was in a “manic state of mind” because she was sending “erratic” text messages to family and friends the afternoon of Sept. 16.

Ronda Hampton, a psychologist Richardson interned for during her last year of college, said Richardson needed to have her mental health evaluated based on the things that went on the day she was arrested. Hampton said there were other times when she became concerned about Richardson’s mental health, but declined to divulge details.

The family has questioned the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s handling of her arrest and release and for not holding her for a psychological evaluation.

Los Angeles sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore has said there was no reason to hold her because she did not exhibit any signs of mental illness or intoxication and she signed several release forms.

Richardson is described as African American with brown hair and hazel-brown eyes. She is about 5 feet 5 inches tall and about 125 pounds. She was last seen wearing a brown Bob Marley T-shirt and blue jeans. She has tattoos on her lower abdomen and behind her neck.

Police are asking anyone with information about her whereabouts or anyone who was at Geoffrey’s Malibu on Sept. 16 to call Los Angeles police detectives Knolls or Eguchi at 213-485-2531.

Denisse Salazar covered the cities of Placentia and Yorba Linda for the Orange County Register. Over the years, she also covered crime, courts, human trafficking and breaking news, such as team coverage of Orange County’s worst mass killing, which won first place in online breaking news from the California Newspaper Publishers Association (2011). Salazar has won awards from the Orange County Press Club. She graduated from Cal State Fullerton with a bachelor's degree in communications with an emphasis in journalism and a minor in Spanish. She earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from USC.